Comments

Boy he must not have many friends in Texas…

Posted by
mrfluffy
from A wide spot on I-90 in Montana on 06/24/11 at 01:36 AM ET

If Richards thinks other teams aren’t going to look at this and think “Hmmmm. Not a team player” he’s delusional. And mrfluffy nailed it with his graphic. So, don’t think about coming back to Dallas, Brad. You are officially persona non grata.

Why would teams think that? Maybe they’re thinking that he wants to explore all of his options -which are his absolute right- and doesn’t want any team he might sign with to have to give up draft picks for him.

Or maybe the team that Dallas wants to trade him to is not a favoured destination of his.

And I’m 100% certain that he has no intention of re-signing with Dallas or else, you know, he might have re-signed with Dallas…

i see no problem with this. It is his right to do this. If he were to deny a deadline trade during the season, i might have had a little sympathy for dallas. But they took way too long to decide to do this, and you can’t blame a guy for not wanting to sign with a team whos ownership is in turmoil.

Furthermore, as garth points out, why would he sign with a team in order to make them weaker by them giving draft picks or prospects/players. He might as well wait, its not that much longer till free agency

He is basically saying to the Stars, you’ll get NOTHING in return for me walking in 8 days AND LIKE IT.

Allowing his rights to be traded would have hardly any effect for him except having ONE bidder for 8 days that he can say NO to. It would return the Stars SOMETHING for him.

In the past three years, Dallas has paid him $23,400,000 for a total of 68 goals. If he can’t at least allow them to get a fourth-round pick from some team for the rights to simply negotiate with him until July 1, he’s obviously not a team player.

It’s not like he’d even have to report either. Bryzgalov had every intention of signing with Philly and didn’t go there in person until like a week after his trade.

What justification can Richards possibly have for not wanting another team to teachnically own his rights for a week when it has no effect whatsoever. His agent would be the one doing all the work even if there was any. Just a classless and totally unnecessary move.

And I’m 100% certain that he has no intention of re-signing with Dallas or else, you know, he might have re-signed with Dallas…

Shows what you know!

He said, for most of the season, that he wanted to stay but the ownership situation needed to work itself out. The Stars are in the middle of a prolonged sale that may still be headed to bankruptcy court after the BoG approves the buyer (if they do).

I may be wrong, but I don’t think the stars actually ever made him an offer because of their *#$%@& up situation.

If he’s signing with another team, he is free to do so on July 1 - so why would he want his new team to give up assets to get him?

Richards has been a stud for the Stars - he owes them absolutely nothing.

If he feels some sort of loyalty to the Stars and wanted them to get something for him - I guess he could agree to waive his NTC for a trade to a team he has no intention of signing with. But that would seem like a far more dicky move.

I really don’t understand the negative comments on this thread - unless you’re a Stars fan.

Posted by
Jerry
on 06/24/11 at 06:31 AM ET

After what happened with Brad Richards when he waived his no-trade clause to leave Tampa, if anyone should be cynical about business and look out only for himself, he should.

He’s doing exactly what team management does - regard hockey as a cold-hearted, emotionless business. If he hadn’t been pushed into accepting a trade before he might have been inclined to be more considerate toward management, but no way is he going to make that mistake now.

His only obligation was to play as well as he could for Dallas during the duration of his contract, and he fulfilled that. He has no further obligation and has no reason to “be nice” to them. Their relationship is over.

When I first heard about the request, I couldn’t figure out why Richards would say no.

At this point, I think he knew who the team was that wanted access and that he knew that location wasn’t on his list of potential destinations. Then he’d be lambasted by critics for not considering the offers (which can still be made during UFA season) since the team gave up assets for him. That’s their prerogative, but the guy loses either way if he doesn’t sign with someone who wanted to jump the line.

In the past three years, Dallas has paid him $23,400,000 for a total of 68 goals.

And how many goals did he score in the previous three years for Tampa Bay? 66. That means Dallas knew EXACTLY, EXACTLY what they were getting when they negotiated a trade for him. Remember that? How they traded for him and didn’t have him hoisted upon them agains their will?

I’ll let BobbaFett answer that for you, Garth.

Are you sure?

If he didn’t have an NTC then I would agree, it’d be well within Dallas’s rights to do whatever they want with his rights, but for him to waive his NTC for a trade puts pressure on him to sign with that team, and you can’t pretend that it doesn’t.

This guy has commited himself to testing the market and there’s nothing wrong with that, and any GM that wouldn’t sign a guy because he didn’t submit to the pressure put on him by the team to waive his No Trade Clause (for the second time in the same contract, by the way), is an ass who deserves to have a failing team.

Why deos succumbing to pressure and waiving his NTC so that his rights go to another team even though he has every single intention in the world to test the market make him a team player.

but for him to waive his NTC for a trade puts pressure on him to sign with that team, and you can’t pretend that it doesn’t.

Dan Hamhuis didn’t have a hard time telling two teams who traded for his rights he wasn’t interested and then come July 1st signed with his hometown team. It’s not like Pens or Flyers fans hold it against him either even if both wish they had their picks back.

Anyone who thinks Richards would be affected in any way whatsoever by this is just delusional. Nabokov refused to even speak to Snow when he was claimed last year. All Richards would have to do is field one phone call, or blow it off like Nabby did, and then let his agent handle it from there.

It’s just showing respect to the organization who brought you in and allowing them to recoup some assets for your time. I mean even if it was a team in Kazakhstan trading for him he’d still spend the rest of the week wherever he intended to before his rights moved. There’s just no excuse.

Dan Hamhuis didn’t have a hard time telling two teams who traded for his rights he wasn’t interested and then come July 1st signed with his hometown team. It’s not like Pens or Flyers fans hold it against him either even if both wish they had their picks back.

Dan Hamhuis didn’t have a no-trade clause that, by waiving, would have made him look like he was more committed to signing with the Flyers when they traded for his negotiating rights.

This is not the same situation.

That’s the big elephant in the room that Garth tried to address. The player has to waive his NTC to allow himself to be traded to another team. Any fan in the world who sees that happen thinks less of Richards who waives a NTC for a team he then blows off. Dallas has run their ship horribly for years now. Richards owes the Stars the same thing that Dallas felt they owed Mike Modano last summer.

What does Richards get for waiving his NTC? Somebody tell me that. What possible tangible good comes to Brad Richards for telling the Stars it’s ok to trade his rights for a draft pick? Good karma? The opportunity for those who call him a selfish dick to wait another week before calling him an EVEN MORE selfish dick for not signing with the team he was traded to because he’s somehow supposed to do that (since, as Garth pointed out, he would have to waive his NTC to even let that happen). He’s not going to get a bigger contract in the next seven days than he would get on July 1st. No GM in the league (outside of Dallas) is going to look at Brad Richards and think “selfish” for letting shitty-run Dallas trade his rights off.

So tell me, what possible good is Brad Richards doing for himself by doing Dallas this favor?

Dan Hamhuis isn’t Brad Richards. Why does Brad Richards have to do what someone else did?

And I can’t find any information about Dan Hamhuis having to waive his NTC in order to be dealt last year, so it’s a completely, 100% different situation if he didn’t have an NTC, because that would mean he had zero control over the situation and could’ve been dealt from one team to the next, going through all 30 teams before July 1st.

So yeah, let’s not compare apples and oranges please.

Nabokov didn’t have a No Trade Clause. And now his rights are controlled by the Islanders. Nabakov doesn’t get to play in the NHL unless the Isles allow him to. Where’s the comparison? How does this have anything whatsoever to do with the Richards situation?

It’s just showing respect to the organization who brought you in and allowing them to recoup some assets for your time.

It’s funny that you bring up this and Dan Hamhuis in the same post. Why aren’t you knocking the Preds for not showing some respect to Dan Hamhuis by letting him enjoy his off-season before free agency began on July 1st?

Respect? This is business. Dallas is trying to get something for nothing, they’re trying to get draft picks for a week of Brad Richards sitting on his couch watching TV. Dallas is doing nothing but trying to look out for their own good, which is apparently fine by you, but somehow it’s not fine for Brad Richards to look out himself, in your eyes.

My point is when waiving his NTC amounts to nothing more than a meaningless shift in the name of the team who owns his rights for a week, one phone call, and work for his agent not him there’s no reason for him to exercise his right to reject a trade.

Where is the hardship in having one conversation on the phone? You guys act like he has some great interest in execrising this option and my point is there’s nothing gained by it and nothing that would matter if he didn’t waive it.

I fully understand hamhuis didn’t have a NTC but my point in bringing him up is that it’s a *#$%@& joke to contend there’s this pressure on Richards by allowing this trade to go through. I’ll say it again, Hamhuis had TWO seperate teams put this “pressure” on him and a year later no one gives a shit he said no to both teams. He obviously didn’t feel the pressure if he signed exactly where everone knew he would before his trade.

Again to help clear up the misunderstandings, I bring up Nabby and Bryzgalov because they were both traded as well. Nabby didn’t even *#$%@& talk to the GM who traded for him and there’s absolutely no reason to believe that Richards would be forced to do so. Maybe he’d burn a bridge, but obviously it was a bridge he didn’t give a shit about by rejecting the trade.

Bryzgalov I brought up because he had every intention of signing with the team who traded for him yet he still waited a week before showing up in the city in person. with that in mind its obvious Richards wouldn’t be forced to shuttle around for a week before hitting UFA and going where ever he pleases. Accepting this trade would create a totally meaningless shift in the ownership of his rights that would place the onus on him not at all. If anything, like I keep saying but I guess I just have to repeat myself, his agent would be the one bogged down with all the work that comes from a team trying to sign you.

There’s no hypocrisy here Garth, the reason the Predators were fine in trading Hamhuis is that “trading” him resulted in him doing exactly what he wanted to do, which is sign with Vancouver on July 1st. The whole point is having your rights traded doesn’t ruin a summer or affect the player whatsoever. You’re the one claiming it has an effect, I’m doing the opposite.

Again, Hamhuis felt no pressure because he had no choice. Saying yes to a trade for a lot of people is the same thing as saying yes to a contract. It’s kind of an unwritten rule.

Besides, if we’re talking about what’s easiest for Richards to do, taking the phone call and saying “No, I won’t waive my NTC” is the absolute easiest thing for him to do. This keeps him from having to go through whatever legal steps a player has to do to waive that clause. Also, that prevents him from having to have any more than one conversation on the phone. He’s going to get offers from plenty of teams after July 1st. What use of it is to him to get one of them a week earlier than the rest?

It also has zero effect on Richards. The only team that this hits is Dallas, and Richards owes Dallas nothing. He has to do all that horribly hard work of taking possibly two phone calls just so Dallas can get a pick and he can look like a dickhole for breaking the basically unwritten rule that if you accept a trade with a NTC, you’re basically accepting the team.

Find me one player who has had to waive a NTC to have his negotiating rights traded to a team who then didn’t sign with that team.

I’ll say it again, Hamhuis had TWO seperate teams put this “pressure” on him and a year later no one gives a shit he said no to both teams.

And i’ll say it again, Hamhuis didn’t have an NTC. Once again, for the cheap seats, HE DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE. There was no pressure on him because nobody asked him if he wanted to be traded. Nashville did what was best for them, and when Philly realized he wasn’t going to sign with them, they did what was best for THEM.

There’s no pressure when you have no say in the situation and what happened with Hamhuis is NOT comparable with what’s happening with Richards.

It can not be that difficult for you to understand the difference between a guy who controls what a team does with his rights and a team that doesn’t. It really can’t.

He obviously didn’t feel the pressure if he signed exactly where everone knew he would before his trade.

Because there wass no pressure on Hamhuis. At all. He wasn’t consulted on the trades, he wasn’t given a choice. His rights were controlled by the team.

Richards CLEARLY hasn’t decided where he is going to sign, so WHY ON EARTH would he OK a trade? What kind of *#$%@& would he be if he OK’d a trade to Florida if he had not intention of signing there?

For Richards to OK a trade and not sign with that team is the same as if he had OK’d a trade to Dallas three years ago and then refused to play there.

There’s no hypocrisy here Garth, the reason the Predators were fine in trading Hamhuis is that “trading” him resulted in him doing exactly what he wanted to do, which is sign with Vancouver on July 1st.

That’s such a ridiculous thing to say that I honestly don’t even know where to start.

If Hamhuis had waived a NTC to have his rights dealt to Philly and then had later waived it again to have his rights dealt to Pittsburgh and then had finally signed with Vancouver, he would likely be on mine and many other’s top-ten list of dickiest players.

Actually if Hamhuis continually waived his NTC, I’d have had no problem with it at all. He could have just told them, “Sure trade my rights for all I care since it doesn’t matter to me, but I WILL be an UFA on July 1,” and it is up to the team trading for him to realize this.

If Richards is determined to hit UFA on July 1st and leave all his options open, I totally understand this decision. There has to be pressure when you accept a trade pre-contract to another team to sign with that team. I would want my mind completely clear to make sure I weighed all my options as accurately as possible and made the right decision for myself and my family.

It’s perfectly within his right to decline a waiver of his No Movement Clause; it is a condition of his contract. Alternatively, there is no problem with approving a waiver of the clause. Thus, giving a different team exclusive negotiating rights. Richards still has the option to not sign before exploring all available options after July 1st; either way, it’s his hand, and he can play it whichever way he sees fit. Whether or not anyone agrees with it, he has successfully negotiated his right to manage his career as he sees fit.